2 Nephi 1-2 - Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome to another fantastic week of Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam. We finished 1 Nephi and are now onto 2 Nephi which I like to call 'The Teachings' because they are almost exclusively teachings that Lehi, Nephi, or Jacob, a young brother of Nephi, give to a variety of audiences. This week, I will divide my comments chapter by chapter since the content is so unique.

An Introduction into The Teachings

In my first post, I broke down the Book of Mormon into my own set of parts that helps me make sense of it. 1 Nephi is all about Nephi, the follower, his family of believers, and his dad, the prophet Lehi. It walks us through how to be converted.
This next part, 2 Nephi, is what I call The Teachings, because it is made up of Lehi's last teachings and Nephi's psalm (2 Nephi 1-4), Jacob's teachings to the people of Nephi (2 Nephi 6-10) Nephi's copying of Isaiah (2 Nephi 12-24), and Nephi's commentary on it (2 Nephi 25-33)
The gospel is laid plainer here than anywhere else I can think of. These teachings are some of the most powerful and filling that I could think to recommend to anyone. It also has the highest number of seminary scripture mastery scriptures of any book. Some commentators have said if we only had the first 2 books of Nephi and nothing else, it would have been enough, and I can't help agreeing with them.
Sometimes it is difficult to get through these chapters, especially the Isaiah chapters. Consider turning to my last blog post where I take some time to talk about how tackle Isaiah. Remember that Isaiah was given spiritually is meant to be understood through the spirit. There is no substitute. I will also be walking through those chapters to the best of my ability so please use this blog as a resource!

2 Nephi 1 - Lehi begs his older sons to wake up!!!

the first chapter is Lehi's words to his older sons Laman and Lemuel. Lehi tells them to wake up, and rise up! Until we can get past our stumbling blocks, we in modern days stand in Laman and Lemuel's place.
Lehi also mentions the promise of the land, that it will be a land of liberty, and the the people will recognize the Lord or be captive on the land.

2 Nephi 2 - Deep doctrine and the plan of salvation

Lehi then turns to Jacob. Jacob is really tuned into the spirit; apparently he already had spiritual manifestations early on. Lehi goes into an incredibly deep account of the plan of salvation, of which, I am quite sure we only have parts and pieces.
Lehi talks of a middle place where opposition needs to exist together. this is how I see it.
1. Evil cannot exist in heaven or near God in his Glory
2. To become like God, we must act like God which means we need to have the chance to do something evil and turn away from it, whatever the circumstances
3. That means we need a 'middle earth'. A place away from heaven where good and bad can both exist. Voila opposition in all things.
You can keep going down the rabbit hole on this one. It is one of the deepest concepts of the gospel. Lehi pursues it a little further. He compares this not only to opposition on earth,  but to its necessity in creation itself. That is heady stuff. I think that Terry Pratchett, of all people, comes the closest to understanding Lehi. Read his discworld books on Death in this order: Mort, Reaper Man, Soul music (extra credit), Hogfather (extra credit), Thief of Time. Terry Pratchett's view on the matter can be spelled out thus:
1. There has to be a form of justice in the world or it will unravel (tp mort, bom 2n2 v13)
2. Creation itself cannot survive without justice, yet cries out for mercy (tp mort, reaper man, soul music, bom 2n2 v12)
3. The duality justice/mercy of creation causes, or is caused by terrible suffering and sin, possibly injustice, and by it being in this middle place (tp reaper man, soul music, hogfather, bom 2n2 v11-13)
3.5 another way of saying this is that to truly live requires walking through consequences good and bad. there is no substitute.
4. There is a unifying or redeeming principle that cares and draws all things to itself, justifies not only creation and the consequences of life, but equally those who will align with its principles. (tp all of them, bom 2n2 v9,10,14,15,16)
Incidentally, his book, good omens, also walks through this scenario with a focus on Adam and Eve. Which is also what Lehi focuses on next. Lehi says this insane thing at the end. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
Crazy huh? But I still believe it.
Lehi's liberty is not like our liberty. he says we are free according to the flesh, but that we need to choose liberty and eternal life, not captivity and death. Other prophets ask us to choose 'that liberty wherewith God hath made you free'. The point is that you have the freedom to not be free, and the liberty to not liberate yourself, so be careful of that. Do what Lehi says. choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator, Jesus Christ, that thing that draws all things to Him by way of the redeeming principle that He carried out on earth through the Atonement.

Some 2 Nephi 2 BIG THOUGHTS

Apart from the tree of life vision chapters, This is probably the most important chapter in the founding events of the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations. We should treat this as though it will have far-reaching cultural and spiritual impact on the the actions and events of the rest of the book. two big thoughts:

1. I'd like to expand a little on my last point of the previous section. All references to freedom in the Book of Mormon should be read in the contextual backdrop of 2:27. this is where liberty is first mentioned in the text, apart from one reference a chapter earlier. We tend to insert a purely American version of liberty and freedom into these chapters. Although they have the same root in the biblical tradition and the Exodus from Egypt, it is important to read the liberty back to the root Hebraic ideas put forth in the Book of Mormon. What are those ideas? Well, they are those which are set forth in this chapter and other chapters. That leads me to my second point.

2. Strictly speaking, Chapter 2 should not be analyzed through a purely Logical lens. We should instead look back before this. I do not mean to say that we should read this through a purely Hebraic lens either; in the first place, this family was actually in opposition to the cultural Hebraic tradition (although much more true to the spiritual Hebraic tradition), and in the second place, under the guiding hand of God, we should expect to see truths that can be applied more universally than in a single culture. In this chapter, we have significant exposition on cause and effect that reflects karmic cycles, and one I would compare closely to some chinese koans I explored some years ago, linked below.

We have an idea that all bad turns eventually into a good outcome, that there is a real adversary who is fallen from heaven, and of Christ's place in these cycles.

Koan 2, Hyakujo's Fox

Koan 42, a woman comes out of mediation

created 2/2/2020

updated 2/11/2024